August 15, 2014

The first thousand-robot flash mob has assembled at Harvard University.

“Form a sea star shape,” directs a computer scientist, sending the command to 1,024 little bots simultaneously via an infrared light. The robots begin to blink at one another and then gradually arrange themselves into a five-pointed star. “Now form the letter K.”

The ‘K’ stands for Kilobots, the name given to these extremely simple robots, each just… read more

August 15, 2014

Recent advances in precise editing of genomes now raise the possibility that fruit and other crops might be genetically improved without the need to introduce foreign genes, as in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), say researchers writing in the Cell Press publication Trends in Biotechnology on August 13.

The notion is that “genetically edited” fruits might be met with greater acceptance than GMOs. This could mean “super bananas” that produce more vitamin… read more

August 15, 2014

Tufts University researchers have developed the first reported complex three-dimensional model made of material that simulates cortical tissue’s biochemical and electrophysiological responses.
“Rather than reconstructing a whole-brain network, we aimed at reducing the structural complexity to fundamental features that are relevant to tissue-level physiological functions,” the authors note in a paper in the August 11 Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Funded by… read more

August 14, 2014

As hemp* makes a comeback in the U.S. after a decades-long ban on its cultivation, scientists are reporting that fibers from the plant can pack as much energy and power as graphene, long-touted as the model material for supercapacitors.

David Mitlin, Ph.D., explains that supercapacitors are energy storage devices that have huge potential to transform the way future electronics are powered.

August 14, 2014

University of Massachusetts Amherst scientists have developed a breakthrough technique for creating water-soluble nano-modules and controlling molecular assembly of nanoparticles over multiple length scales.

The new method should reduce the time nanotech manufacturing firms spend in trial-and-error searches for materials to make electronic devices such as solar cells, organic transistors, and organic light-emitting diodes.

August 13, 2014

Two recent research studies “lift robotic imaging and telemedicine to the next level,” says Sherif F. Nagueh, MD, Medical Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at the Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, Texas in JACC-Imaging.

August 13, 2014

Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have grafted induced neuronal stem cells (iNSC) into the brains of mice, with long-term functionality and stability, for the first time. Six months after implantation, the new neurons, reprogrammed from skin cells, became fully and functionally integrated into the brain, creating synapses and glial cells.

August 12, 2014

Weizmann Institute scientists have found that given the right conditions, cube-shaped nanoparticles self-assemble into unexpectedly beautiful and complex helical structures.

The scientists describe their research in the journal Science.

Rafal Klajn, PhD, and postdoctoral fellow Gurvinder Singh, PhD, of the Institute’s Organic Chemistry Department used nanocubes of an iron oxide material called magnetite, which has magnetic properties.

August 12, 2014

Favela found the device enables the visually impaired to judge their ability to comfortably pass through narrow passages, like an open door or busy sidewalk, as well as if they were actually seeing such pathways themselves.

Sophisticated machines that build themselves, inspired by a child's toy and origami

August 10, 2014

Engineers at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Wyss Institute, and MIT have developed a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes flat, then folds itself up and crawls away — all without human intervention.

The design was based on the principle of Shrinky Dinks (the classic children’s toy that shrinks a plastic-paper composite in a rigid form when… read more